By Frank Young

The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy Supports Highlands Recreation

There can be little doubt that the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy (WVHC) supports recreation in the highlands of the state.

One need only have seen the numbers of WVHC leaders on Spruce Mountain in late May to understand our commitment to hiking trail maintenance, river recreation, cave exploration, and other enjoyments of nature and simple living.

The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy Board of Directors, in January, voted to financially support the West Virginia Trails Coalition (WVTC) in its trail maintenance work in the Spruce Knob/Seneca Rocks recreation areas of the Monongahela National Forest.

WVHC Director Carroll Jett is the point person with the WVTC on this project. Carroll spent much of the winter and spring organizing this spring and summer trail maintenance work.

Early on Carroll asked for volunteers to help with the logistics of supporting the eleven AmeriCorps workers assigned to perform most of the actual "grunt work" of trail maintenance. This support consists of providing food, housing, recreation, and other "off trail" support for these workers. Only the prioritizing of specific trail assignments and maintenance techniques is provided by the Forest Service.

Early on WVHC Board member Don Gasper and President Frank Young agreed to assist in this endeavor. (Surely the prospect of spending 3 weeks or so at remote Shot Cherry Cabin had no effect on either’s spirit of volunteerism). The third week of May, Carroll, Don and I arrived to "set up camp." Three days later the AmeriCorps crew of eleven arrived. On Memorial Day WVHC Administrative Assistant Dave Saville volunteered his holiday to lead the crew through a recreational cave trip.

On Friday, June 1st, WVHC Board member Carter Zerbe, along with Robert Wilson (spouse of WVHC Treasurer Jackie Hallinan) arrived, along with Charleston lawyer Paul Sheridan and his son Jamie, to lead a 17 person, canoe trip from Big Bend Campground, near Smoke Hole, to Petersburg. This day-long recreational opportunity was appreciated by the work crew.

So in the course on the week five WVHC leaders and the spouse of another helped to support this one hiking trail maintenance project.

And the WVHC’s Outings Committee has a dozen or so WVHC volunteers organizing and leading hikes throughout the year.

Coupling all this with WVHC’s Spring and Fall Review volunteer lead outings, and our Rivers Committee, Mining Committee, Blackwater Canyon Committee, Public Lands Committee and Highways volunteers all working to preserve and increase recreational opportunities, we find literally dozens of WVHC folks, a virtual army, supporting recreation in the West Virginia Highlands.

The next time our adversaries in the coal, timber or other industries accuse us of just being political antagonists and against everything, we can proudly point to an important part of what we do support -- vast recreational opportunities for any who care to avail themselves of them. And we don’t just do lip service to recreation. We support recreation with our dollars, our sweat, our tears, with our very souls.